In 1994, Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing and then Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew signed the Agreement on the Joint Development of Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). Within the next five years, SIP faced steep competition from the Suzhou New District (SND), a project developed and controlled by the local government. As a result, SIP reported an accumulated loss of US$90 million from 1994 to 2000. Both governments met and agreed for the Singapore consortium to reduce its shareholding from the original agreement of 65% to 35% and to transfer management control to the Chinese consortium by 2001.
Supplement to case NTU163. In 2001, the Singapore government decided to withdraw from the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) investment. The rival Suzhou New District (SND) project had mastered Singapore's approach to developing industrial parks and began to improve its own infrastructure and administrative practices. The Singapore team was a willing teacher to transfer knowledge but the Suzhou municipal officials had engaged in competitive learning behaviour. They did not learn the "why", only the "what" and "how". As a result, SNP faced many problems due to various "software" issues. The Suzhou officials wanted to explore the possibility of selling the problem-ridden SND to Singapore.
In August 2017, Google fired James Damore, a 28-year-old software engineer who had been employed by the company since 2013. The move came after Damore penned an internal company memo titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber," which posited that innate biological differences between men and women-as opposed to hiring biases, gender discrimination, or a hostile workforce-were at least partially responsible for the low numbers of women in tech. At the time, 20% of Google's tech workforce, and 31% of its overall staff, was female. Damore also admonished Google for silencing opinions that challenged what he viewed as the company's politically liberal belief system. Reactions to both the memo's content and Google's decision to fire Damore were swift and varied. Some praised the company for signaling intolerance of any marginalization of women. Others criticized Google for terminating an employee for a seemingly innocuous act of expression. Danielle Brown, Google's new vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, hired just a few weeks before the memo was leaked to the public, must now advise Google's top leadership team on dealing with the fallout.
In December 2014, Dr. Anthony Furlan, chair of the Department of Neurology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH), faced a mandate from the hospital's executive leadership team. Specifically, all UH departments were directed to take steps within six months to reduce the waiting time for outpatient appointments-measured as the time to first available outpatient appointment-to no more than 15 days. For Furlan and his colleagues in neurology, achieving this target was a significant challenge, as the department's current time to first available appointment was 93 days. The case considers several alternatives for reducing waiting time in outpatient neurology without increasing the total clinical staff. The case allows students to evaluate opportunities for expanding the effective capacity of a complex service operation and to understand the tradeoffs between customer service and labor utilization.
In 2018, CEO Lowell McAdam led efforts to transform Verizon through digital innovation, media acquisitions and integration, and changes to the company culture. He sought to manage change at the company as growth in traditional areas slowed, and position it as a leader in a 5G world.
In 2007, the former Calgary mayor was preparing to make the case for a Community Revitalization Levy to secure financing to develop Calgary’s East Village, a downtown brownfield site. The East Village had a difficult history, and economic, social, and environmental issues abounded there. All previous attempts at redevelopment had failed. After doing meticulous research, the mayor presented to Calgary City Council his idea of the Community Revitalization Levy, the first of its kind in Canada, and it was approved. Next began the momentous task of carrying out the redevelopment, and the City of Calgary could not be directly involved. The mayor had to decide how the city could ensure the success of the redevelopment of the East Village.
Zhejiang Semir E-Commerce Co. Ltd., the online subsidiary of Chinese casual clothing company Zhejiang Semir Group Co. Ltd. (Semir), grew continuously from its launch in 2012 to become a main contributor to Semir’s success, contributing approximately 30 per cent of Semir’s annual revenue by 2016. Semir entered the online market relatively late after many competing Chinese clothing manufacturers had already established their presence online. Yet it became the industry leader in terms of e-commerce revenue. It differed from other major clothing firms mainly in its implementation of the management philosophy of Kazuo Inamori, particularly his Amoeba Management method and his belief in altruism and a win-win approach to business. Semir worked to create supply chain relationships that were true partnerships, and it promoted the various brands in its multi-brand strategy through celebrity endorsements and online marketing. Like its major competitors, Semir was exploring online-to-offline (O2O) models in the clothing industry. In 2016, the company faced a rapidly changing online environment and increasing competition in the industry. It needed a strategy to maintain its early success in e-commerce. It also needed to determine what kind of O2O model to adopt and how to deal with competition from fast-fashion retailers in the online marketplace.
By October 2014, Kumar Sweets was a successful sweets company in Kurukshetra, Haryana, India, well-known for Indian sweets made using a Kumar family recipe that had been passed down for generations. The company’s success was largely due to the continued efforts of its founder and head, but the founder’s eldest son sensed that something was wrong with the firm’s operations. Although revenue had increased over the years, the business had not been able to realize the expected profit. Since its last product expansion effort in 2011, Kumar Sweets’ profitability was lower than it had been in previous years; the founder and his son wanted to find out why, because they had hoped to pursue geographic expansion. Kumar Sweets needed to implement appropriate actions that addressed its existing problems as soon as possible.
Glenda Crisp became the chief data officer of TD Bank Group in October 2015. The Office of the chief data officer had only been established in 2013; the scope of the department still needed to be fully defined, and the original enterprise data governance policies needed to be updated. Crisp saw issues in a variety of areas, such as organizational structure, the processes used to manage data governance practices, and technology, all of which needed to be identified and prioritized. An implementation plan then needed to be developed.
Zhejiang Semir E-Commerce Co. Ltd., the online subsidiary of Chinese casual clothing company Zhejiang Semir Group Co. Ltd. (Semir), grew continuously from its launch in 2012 to become a main contributor to Semir's success, contributing approximately 30 per cent of Semir's annual revenue by 2016. Semir entered the online market relatively late after many competing Chinese clothing manufacturers had already established their presence online. Yet it became the industry leader in terms of e-commerce revenue. It differed from other major clothing firms mainly in its implementation of the management philosophy of Kazuo Inamori, particularly his Amoeba Management method and his belief in altruism and a win-win approach to business. Semir worked to create supply chain relationships that were true partnerships, and it promoted the various brands in its multi-brand strategy through celebrity endorsements and online marketing. Like its major competitors, Semir was exploring online-to-offline (O2O) models in the clothing industry. In 2016, the company faced a rapidly changing online environment and increasing competition in the industry. It needed a strategy to maintain its early success in e-commerce. It also needed to determine what kind of O2O model to adopt and how to deal with competition from fast-fashion retailers in the online marketplace.
Glenda Crisp became the chief data officer of TD Bank Group in October 2015. The Office of the chief data officer had only been established in 2013; the scope of the department still needed to be fully defined, and the original enterprise data governance policies needed to be updated. Crisp saw issues in a variety of areas, such as organizational structure, the processes used to manage data governance practices, and technology, all of which needed to be identified and prioritized. An implementation plan then needed to be developed.
By October 2014, Kumar Sweets was a successful sweets company in Kurukshetra, Haryana, India, well-known for Indian sweets made using a Kumar family recipe that had been passed down for generations. The company's success was largely due to the continued efforts of its founder and head, but the founder's eldest son sensed that something was wrong with the firm's operations. Although revenue had increased over the years, the business had not been able to realize the expected profit. Since its last product expansion effort in 2011, Kumar Sweets' profitability was lower than it had been in previous years; the founder and his son wanted to find out why, because they had hoped to pursue geographic expansion. Kumar Sweets needed to implement appropriate actions that addressed its existing problems as soon as possible.
It was early November 2017, and the chief executive officer of ClickDishes Inc. (ClickDishes), an Alberta-based food service application company, needed to consider the strategic direction of his start-up. ClickDishes had a unique value proposition and very few competitors worldwide. Its chief executive officer wanted to enter a number of new markets very quickly in order to capitalize on his company's first-mover advantage and establish the ClickDishes brand name as the default solution for in-restaurant ordering. However, his desire for growth was checked by his apprehension that rapid expansion would overextend the company's limited resources, and the knowledge that poor execution in one new city could be devastating to further growth. He had to develop a market expansion plan that suited ClickDishes' resources and capabilities but was also aggressive enough to place the firm in a dominant position against new entrants in its industry.
In December 2016, the president of the Lebanon Mountain Trail Association (LMTA) was getting ready for a board of directors meeting during which the members had to vote on whether to hire an executive director-a first for the association. If hired, the association would face a new financial hurdle that could threaten its sustainability. The LMTA was a non-profit mountain trail association that was implementing socially responsible tourism practices on and around a 470 kilometre trail. The association was struggling to sustain itself financially, to protect and maintain the trail, and to secure the succession of its board.